When Harry met silly: Kane spikes Gunners
Tottenham revived their hopes of beating Arsenal to the final Champions League qualification position by overwhelming their fierce north London rival in a 3-0 home win in the Premier League yesterday.
Harry Kane scored twice — including one from the penalty spot — and Son Heung-min added the other just after halftime to move Tottenham one point behind fourth-place Arsenal, who had centre back Rob Holding sent off in the 33rd minute when the score was 1-0.
There are two games remaining for each team and fifth-place Tottenham’s finish to the season looks easier than Arsenal’s. While Spurs face two of the bottom four in Burnley and already-relegated Norwich, Arsenal must travel to Newcastle before a home game against Everton.
“When it’s a game you must win, it’s not easy,” Tottenham manager Antonio Conte said. “We knew there had to be only one result. We had concentration, and had the right calm and positive pressure.”
Arsenal were responsible for their own downfall, with fullback Cedric Soares barging into Son at the back post for the penalty that Kane rolled into the corner in the 22nd minute.
Holding, already booked for pulling back Son, then opted to stick out an elbow to block off the South Korea forward rather than track his run following Eric Dier’s ball over the top of the Arsenal defence.
Holding connected with the face of Son, who slumped to the ground, and was shown a second yellow card.
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta refused to comment on either the penalty or the red card, but his anger was evident.
“If I say what I think, I’m suspended for six months,” he said.
Arteta chose not to bring on a specialist defender to shore up the defence — centre back Ben White, returning from injury, remained an unused substitute — and, within four minutes, Arsenal fell further behind.
Son swung over a corner from the right, Rodrigo Bentancur headed the ball towards goal, and Kane stooped to head home at the back post from barely a metre out.
Son moved one goal behind Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah in the race to be the league’s top scorer by curling home the third goal from inside the area in the 47th after Kane had been tackled just as he was about to shoot on the turn.
Son has 10 goals in his last eight league games and is on 21 for the campaign, his best yet for Spurs. He looked unhappy when substituted in the 72nd minute, denying him a chance to draw level with Salah, and was given a big hug by Conte.
A miserable evening for Arsenal was capped by defender Gabriel hobbling off with an apparent right hamstring injury. With Holding suspended and White maybe still not fully fit, Arteta’s central-defensive resources are being stretched.
Manchester City and Liverpool are already sure of being in next season’s Champions League while third-place Chelsea are set to join them, sitting four points ahead of Arsenal and needing one win from their remaining games against Leicester and already-relegated Watford.
It means Arsenal and Tottenham look to be battling for the final slot and it should go to the final day of the season.
“You lose the football match in the conditions that we lost it, it’s painful,” Arteta said. “This game is history for us, now it’s Newcastle. This game got out of our hands and we have to accept it.”